Ph.D. University of Iowa, 1990, Mass Communication with dissertation on journalism ethics MS. Syracuse University, 1973, Television-Radio B.A. DePauw Univesity, 1969, Economics
Ten years experience as reporter, executive producer, news director for local television stations in Bangor, Maine, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Green Bay, Wisconsin.
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I'm wearing several hats these days. I continue as the Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values at The Poynter Institute. I still play a key role in the Poynter Ethics Fellows program that I initiated in 2001, and I'm involved in other Poynter programs in values and ethics. I write for Poynter Online and I'm always ready to take calls and e-mails with your ethics questions and queries. (727-580-4544 is my cell phone, and steele@poynter.org reaches me).
The other part of my professional life is now based at DePauw University, my undergraduate alma mater in Greencastle, Indiana where my wife, Carol, and I moved in the summer of 2008. I have a dual role at DePauw. I'm the director of the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics where I work with faculty and students to coordinate and develop forums, symposiums and other programs on a wide range of ethics issues. I'm also the Eugene S. Pulliam Distinguished Professor of Journalism, teaching courses in journalism ethics and in DePauw's Media Fellows program, one of the university's programs of distinction. I also teach a course in Leadership and Responsibility to students from all majors, and I developed a first-year seminar course called "This I Believe: Storytelling About Our Core Values." I used the "This I Believe" collection of essays and the public radio series as a catalyst.
Carol is an associate dean of academic affairs at DePauw and director of the university's sustainability program. For both of us, this is a return to our Midwestern roots -- I'm from small-town Indiana and Carol is from Chicago. We, along with our trusty pups -- a Golden Retriever named Connemara and a Border Collie named Cooper -- are enjoying the Indiana countryside with rolling hills, prairie grass, flowers and woods around our home. We look forward to visitors arriving on our doorstep....
